Reshaping Trade in the Asia Pacific: What’s Next for the Biden Administration?

Please join us for an FPLC special event with Wendy CutlerVice President of Asia Society and Former Acting Deputy US Trade Representative.

Wednesday, April 28 at 12PM (Noon) EST

Wendy CutlerWendy Cutler is Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and the managing director of the Washington, D.C. office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in the nation’s capital and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia.

She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as Acting Deputy United States Trade Representative. During her USTR career, she worked on a range of bilateral, regional and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership, US-China negotiations and the WTO Financial Services negotiations. She has published a series of ASPI papers on the Asian trade landscape, and serves as a regular media commentator on trade and investment developments in Asia and the world.

Cutler received her master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and her bachelor’s degree from the George Washington University.

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US – China: Dimensions of a Complicated Relationship

An Evening with Dr. Cynthia Watson
Wednesday, June 3, 2020 @ 7:00 p.m. EST

Please Join an FPLC Meeting Event with Cynthia Watson, Ph.D. – Dean of Faculty & Academic Programs at The National War College, The National Defense University

The U.S. and China form what has been called “the determinant relationship of the 21st century.” In this time of upheaval, where is that relationship headed? Are there areas of agreement on issues that affect our country and the world—the economy, trade, and our shared climate? Or are we entering a new Cold War? FPLC is pleased to welcome back Cynthia Watson from the National War College to give us her views on this crucial topic.

Cynthia Watson has served on the faculty of the National War College since she arrived in l992. She accepted the position of Dean of Faculty & Academic Programs in 2014. The mission of the National War College is to educate future leaders of the Armed Forces, Department of State and other civilian agencies for high-level policy command and staff responsibilities by conducting a senior-level course of study in national strategy. When she last spoke to FPLC in 2017, she was focused on military education as an instrument of statecraft as well as China’s modernizing and how that affects its security relations. She has worked on China in Latin America for the past fifteen years. Her most recent manuscript was Asia First: Reflecting or Refracting Strategy? It is an assessment of the use of strategy to achieve the rebalance to Asia and the future of the United States around the world.

She grew up in Thailand and Colombia, earned her M.A. in Economic History/Latin American Studies from the London School of Economics and has a PhD in Government & International Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Her Alma Mater, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, honored her as Alumna of the Year in 2011. She has published nine books on various security issues, including Combatant Commands: Origins, Structure and Engagements (2011), Stability, Security, Reconstruction and Transition Operations (2012), and Military Education (2007).

She was Assistant Dean for Social Sciences at Loyola University of Chicago where she also taught Political Science. Dr. Watson worked for the House Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights as well as the U.S. General Accounting Office. Among other posts she is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.


Event Sponsored by:

Clash of Globalizations

The USA and China:
Much more than a Trade War
An Evening with Dr. James P. Buchanan

Thursday, November 14, 2019

5:30 p.m. Reception/6:15 p.m. Dinner/7:00 p.m. Presentation
Schiff Family Conference Center at Xavier University

There is a great deal of discussion about the trade war with China. President Trump has imposed an increasing series of tariffs on China in order to get what he believes to be a better trading agreement with China. China has retaliated with their own tariffs. That this is having negative impacts in both the US and China is undeniable. The outcome is to be determined. But the current trade war is just a small part of a much larger conflict between the West and China – a clash of models of globalization. The Washington Consensus, also known as the Bretton-Woods System has been the dominant mode of globalization since the 1950’s and has gone through its own evolution culminating with the formation of the World Trade Organization in 1992.

While China is a member of the WTO, at the same time it has developed and pursued its own competing model of globalization, which not only competes with the Bretton-Woods model but is often in violation of the rules governing its membership in the WTO. The best example of the Chinese model of globalization is The Belt and Road Initiative – a long-term plan for regional interconnectivity and dominance in Asia to which China has committed some $8 trillion dollars. Both the WTO and The Belt and Road are facing significant challenges. This session will lay out in broad terms the two Globalizations allowing us to discuss this clash of globalizations and the implications for US foreign and trade policy.

Dr. James P. Buchanan was educated at Yale University and University of Chicago where he completed a PhD in comparative religions, philosophies and comparative value systems. He has also studied in France, Russia and China. In 2000 he became the first holder of the Besl Family Chair in Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University. From 2002 to the present he has been University Professor and Executive Director of The Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier.

Dr. Buchanan has delivered over 300 lectures and talks worldwide on issues ranging from interfaith relations; globalization; systems theory and global systems, and sustainability. He has published widely. His new book, Wagers Into the Abyss: Ethics in an Age of Global Systems will be published next year.

Event sponsored by:

Xavier University - Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue

World Affairs Council

Latin America Trending towards Beijing, Washington, or its Southern Star

Presented by Cynthia Watson, Ph.D.
Professor of Strategy at the National War College

Tuesday, December 5, 2017
5:30-6:15 p.m.- Reception 6:15 p.m. Dinner
7:00-8:30 p.m. – Presentation and Discussion

Schiff Conference Center, Cintas Center at Xavier University

According to Dr. Cynthia Watson “Latin America is much in the news because a number of leaders are under scrutiny for corruption, the Chinese are involved in a manner they have never been historically, and the United States is absorbed in issues elsewhere. The region is showing some evidence of achieving the conditions the U.S. has long hoped for – absorbing the rule of law, calling its international relationships to adhere to standards, and trying to create a genuinely Latin American path towards sustained development.”

Please join us to find out what is really going on in Latin America today.

Dr. Cynthia Watson

Dr. Cynthia Watson

Cynthia Watson grew up in Thailand and Colombia. She earned a M.A. in Economic History/Latin American Studies from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Government & International Studies from Notre Dame. She was 2011 Alumna of the Year at University of Missouri at Kansas City. Author of nine books on security issues, including Combatant Commands: Origins, Structure and Engagements (2011), Stability, Security, Reconstruction and Transition Operations (2012), and Military Education (2007), she focuses on military education as an instrument of statecraft as well as China’s modernizing and its effect on security relations, having worked on China in Latin America for the past fifteen years. Her most recent manuscript is Asia First: Reflecting or Refracting Strategy?, assessing the use of strategy to achieve the rebalance to Asia and the future of the United States around the world.

Dr. Watson joined the National War College faculty in 1992. She was Assistant Dean for Social Sciences at Loyola University of Chicago where she also taught Political Science. Dr. Watson worked for the House Subcommittee on Government Information & Individual Rights as well as the U.S. General Accounting Office. She is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Event sponsored by:

Xavier University - Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue

World Affairs Council